Chapter Nine: Trauma Bonding
"How's Uliana?" Bridget asked Red and Chloe when they found her and Ella hiding in the expansive library. Books flew through the air, magically reshelving themselves on the two-story tall bookshelves. Glowing orbs hovered high overhead, bathing the room in flickering light. All the girls were missing class but none of them cared.
Bridget wiped a few tears from her face. "I feel terrible, I should go apologize."
Red pushed her back onto the bench she was sitting on when she tried to stand up. "No! Uliana did it to herself. And it serves her right."
Ella and Bridget both flinched.
"We still shouldn't be mean back to her," Ella protested. "Kindness is a better road."
"Isn't she always bullying you guys?" Red countered.
They didn't say anything.
Chloe, a skilled mediator, chose that moment to change the topic. "I heard it's Castlecoming week. Are you guys going?"
Bridget shook her head. "No one is really interested in going with us and everyone already has plans."
Red rolled her eyes. "Dances are an outdated, elitist, sexist tradition. Squeezing into a super tight dress and painful shoes is so not it. You're not missing anything, trust me."
"It would be magical though…I've never been to a dance," Bridget countered, sighing wistfully. "My mom never throws balls or really allowed me to socialize much. That'll change when I'm queen, you can bet."
Red wondered if she could change that opinion as well as prevent the prank. Would save her from a lot of boring state dinners with Wonderland nobility in the future…
Ella suddenly perked up. She grabbed her best friend's hands. "Bridget, will you go to Castlecoming with me?"
Bridget sat up straighter, her perky smile reappearing. "You mean it?"
Ella nodded. "What are friends for?"
"We have to go try on dresses right now!" Bridget squealed. "We only have two days."
Red glanced at Chloe, eyes wide with meaning.
But Ella shook her head, standing and grabbing her school bag as the end of day bell chimed outside. "I can't, I have to get back home. But later?"
Bridget nodded, squeezing Ella in a tight hug. "I'm still going to raid my closet tonight, okay?"
"Go for it," Ella laughed.
The girls said goodbye to Chloe and Red then headed off. Bridget was bouncing and Ella's shoulders were tight.
"Two days until my mom gets pranked," Red said as the library doors thudded shut, leaving them alone.
Chloe shared her defeated expression. "It's not enough time."
"It's gonna have to be," Red argued. Her fingers ran across the spines of ancient tomes, pulling them out slightly so they teetered on the edge of the shelf. "I can't believe my mom was so sweet."
Chloe caught a book that nearly fell. "Well Ella seems so nice and kind. It's easy to see why they were best friends."
Red didn't have Chloe's tact or skill in switching topics. "Whatever. We have to focus on how to stop Uliana before Castlecoming."
"How?"
"First we have to figure out what she's planning." Red picked up a cup of quills, observing the shiny feathers as they slipped out and onto the table. "Bugs in Bridget's dress, maybe something with snakes…? So many good options."
Chloe collected the fallen feathers, choosing not to ask about how many of those options Red had dabbled in.
"So, let's find out more about Uliana," she suggested. "You think my mom might know? Bridget said she showed her around the school, taught her about the cliques."
"It's possible." Red drummed pencils along a table. "Plus, she's closest to Bridget so she'll know her weaknesses and exactly how to stab her in the back."
Chloe yanked the pencils out of Red's hands. "You have some serious intimacy issues."
If that wasn't the pot calling the kettle black, Chloe didn't know what was.
Red and Chloe retraced their steps back to Ella's manor home. On the way, Chloe rattled off facts about the ancient building and how Lady Tremaine had turned it into Auradon Prep after she took over Prince Charming's castle.
The building was large and grand but not well tended. Chloe jumped over twisting vines that fell onto the crumbling sidewalk while Red glanced at the grimy glass windows. A barren fountain sat where Maleficent's statue would be placed in the future.
"Let's try the courtyard again," Red suggested, starting to veer into the yard.
But Chloe shook her head and marched up to the door, knocking on the rich wood. "That's rude!"
In only a few moments, it cracked open, and Ella peeked out. Her curls were hidden under a scarlet kerchief, and she'd traded in her ripped jean jacket for a patched brown apron that covered her striped polo and jean skirt. Her eyes widened when she saw Chloe and Red standing on her stoop (Chloe gave an awkward wave).
"What are you guys doing here?" she hissed, slipping out and closing the door behind her.
"We came to see you!" Chloe was smiling too big. This house was giving her the creeps…
"Who's there?" a voice from inside the manor shrieked. All the girls looked up and saw a fearsome woman in a red velvet dress with a green broach leaning out a window, scowling at them.
Ella flushed, her whole body tensing. "Just some girls from school!"
"You still have chores, Cinderella," the woman called back, smirking. "And you know what happens if you don't finish them."
The window snapped shut and Ella couldn't look Chloe or Red in the eye. "Sorry, my stepmom is…"
"My mom wouldn't let me have friends over until I'd finished all my chores too," Chloe said into the awkward silence.
"My mom wouldn't even let me have friends," Red muttered.
Ella slowly met their eyes. "Really?"
When the girls nodded Ella opened the door behind her.
"You can stay, just, please help me with my chores?"
After Chloe and Red agreed, Ella brought them into the manor. It was clear it had once been grand, with dark wood paneling and marble floors, but it was too much house for one teenager to keep up with. There were cobwebs in the chandeliers and dusty rugs on the floor. Red jumped when she saw a mouse running up the stairs. She did a double take when she saw it was wearing a hat.
Ella found extra mops and they set to work in a parlor decorated with imported vases and fine wooden tables. A cold fireplace dominated one wall, and Ella placed her cleaning supplies on the mantel, pulling out her duster.
Red awkwardly shuffled her mop around, unused to cleaning anything while Chloe expertly moved the water and suds, making the marble shine. But her glass shoes slipped on the slick surface, and she nearly went tumbling multiple times.
Ella glanced over from her dusting and raised her eyebrows.
"Don't you think it's time to lose the glass shoes, Chloe?" Red snapped. Her mop was sitting in a dirty puddle that she didn't know how to fix.
"These were from my mom!" she protested, tossing her curls as she met Red's glare with one of her own. Her patience, normally oceans deep on the Isle, was wearing thin after leaving home, seeing a coup, time traveling, meeting her mom, and dealing with Red! "I'm not giving them up."
"Your mom sounds nice," Ella said wistfully. She was still dusting, she never stopped moving.
"She is." Chloe didn't realize she was going to whisper until the words left her mouth.
Red, tactful as always, put her duster down and began to slink towards Ella. "That thing with Uliana. Wild, huh?"
"Definitely." Finished dusting, she began to pull out polish for the wooden table. "Uliana has two older sisters and they're Merlin Academy legends. Ursula once turned all the freshmen into frogs and Morgana could make any princess cry with a well-placed wart curse. Uliana is always trying to outdo them. Both in power and in cruelty."
Chloe beamed at her reflection in the marble. "But why does Uliana have it out for Bridget? Just because she's a princess?" That's how it always worked in fairytales.
"No." Red shook her head. "Bridget's weak, she's an easy target, which bullies love."
No card guard lasted very long in Wonderland if they didn't get strong. Not with their queen.
"Uliana is mean to everyone. Most people just stay out of her way." Ella spread the lemon polish on the table and got to work with her rags. "But Bridget…no matter how mean Uliana is, she keeps trying to be friends. That's what Uliana can't stand. She's so strong."
"You think Bridget's strong because she's nice?" Red laughed.
Both Chloe and Ella nodded.
"Strength is being kind-"
"When everyone else is awful to you," Chloe finished. Ella looked at her curiously and Chloe went back to mopping.
Red knew that was insane. Everyone who had ever been nice to her mom was living in the dungeons (if they were lucky).
"Say we wanted to find Uliana." Red leaned across the polished table. "Where would we look?"
"Probably the Black Lagoon. It feeds into the ocean so it's salt water," Ella replied. "Why?"
Just then, Chloe's shoes slipped on the floor again and her mop bumped into a pedestal, causing a porcelain vase to teeter off. It smashed into a billion pieces on the freshly cleaned marble floor.
Both Ella and Chloe were frozen.
"What was that?"
Red sprang into action. "Sweep it into the fireplace, she'll never know!"
"Nothing, Stepmother!" Ella screamed. She grabbed a broom, and Chloe grabbed the largest pieces of the vase, her fingers getting cut by the jagged edges.
Red spread ashes over the pieces they threw in the fireplace, trying to hide them. Chloe was sliding in her glass shoes, racing back for more pieces…
When Lady Tremaine walked in.
Her hawkish eyes landed on Ella, broom in hand, caught sweeping the remains into the fireplace. Then she found Chloe, standing in a pile of shards, her bleeding fingers dripping onto the floor.
"It was my fault." The words stuck in Chloe's mouth. I failed. "I'm so, so, sorry, it will never happen again."
Lady Tremaine looked her over, as if considering, but Chloe knew she wasn't. She had made a mistake and 'sorry' couldn't fix it.
"You let this stranger into my house," Lady Tremaine said to Ella, turning to face her, "and let her break my beautiful things? Unacceptable."
"Wait, it's my fault!" Chloe protested.
"And yet, Cinderella was the one responsible for you," Lady Tremaine explained. Her smirk was knife sharp.
She's right. Chloe knew she was right. Her hands were shaking.
"Furthermore," Lady Tremaine's gaze spun back to Ella, "you are grounded. And until that vase is fixed…you can sleep in the barn."
Ella nodded, eyes glued to the floor. Red winced, clutching her broom with white knuckles.
"Do not return to my home," Lady Tremaine warned Chloe. Then she sashayed back into the halls of the manor, calling for her daughters.
"Ella, I'm…I'm so sorry," Chloe said.
But Ella straightened her shoulders and attempted a weak smile. "It's alright. The barn cat just had kittens and I've been meaning to visit them."
"Wait." Red stepped between the chummy pair. "That was totally unfair and you're just going to take it? Not even a secret revenge prank?"
But Ella shook her head. "They're my family."
"But they're not!"
"Yes, they are." Ella sighed, looking out the window. "The last thing my mother ever told me was to be kind. My father, before he left, told me to take care of my new family. And I know they're cruel and unkind. I know it's not fair. But I can't…this is my family, this is the only family I've known for so long. All I can do is hope that things will change one day. And be kind."
"That's idiotic," Red replied with an eye roll.
"What else can I do?"
"Anything."
Ella looked at Red, but it wasn't her who had spoken.
"You could do anything else," Chloe said without meaning to.
The sunset was breathtaking as Red and Chloe walked back to Merlin Academy but neither of them noticed it. Chloe was staring at her glass slippers (they were starting to cause blisters on her heels) and Red was lost in thought.
"Why did you help us sweep away the vase?" Red finally broke the silence. "Aren't good people not supposed to lie?"
"I didn't," Chloe shot back. "I told her I broke it."
"Yeah, but you tried to hide the evidence."
"I tried to fix my mistake. There's a difference."
"Oh, so as long as you fix your mistake and say you're sorry, then good people aren't mad?"
"Of course." And Chloe pretended that Red believed her lie.